report highlights
- Around 36.1% of American adults consumed fast food in a day between 2013 and 2016.
- Non-Hispanic black americans are more likely to consume fast food than Hispanic, non-Hispanic White, and non-Hispanic Asian Americans.
- men are more likely Eat fast food for lunch, while women tend to eat it as a snack.
- Around 35.4% of women consume fast food daily and 38% of men consume fast food every day.
- adult who make more money tend to consume fast food.
- A greater percentage of younger adults consume fast food compared to older adults (44.9% of adults aged 20 to 39 compared to 24.1% of adults aged 60 and over).
- Most Americans eat fast food 1-3 times per week.
- A person spends approximately $1,200 on fast food per year.
- American households spend about 10% of their income on fast food on average.
- The fast food industry is growing by approx 2.2% each year.
General fast food consumption statistics
To better understand fast food consumption in the US, it’s important to look at general statistics, from when and where people eat fast food to changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Here are some of the top stats on fast food consumption.
US Fast Food Consumption Statistics:
- About a fifth (20%) of fast food meals are consumed in the car.
- About 43.7% of fast food is eaten at lunchtime.
- Dinner accounts for another 42% of fast food consumption.
- Breakfast accounts for only 22.7% of fast food consumption, with snacks accounting for the remaining 22.6%.
- About 80% of the fast food that children consume comes from McDonald’s.
- Children also consume about 80% of all McDonald’s orders.
- Four out of five children (80%) say McDonald’s is their favorite restaurant.
- Alabama has the highest number of fast food restaurants per capita, at 6.3 restaurants per 10,000 people.
- Vermont has the lowest number of fast food restaurants per capita at just 1.9 restaurants per 10,000 people.
- The COVID-19 pandemic has caused fast food restaurant traffic to drop by 45%.
- Online orders for fast food restaurants are up 12% since the pandemic began.
- Chipotle has seen a 200% increase in digital sales since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Sales of vegan fast food options grew 11% between 2018 and 2019.
- In June 2020, Sonic was the most popular fast food option, possibly due to its drive-through design.
- Online grocery delivery services are forecast to reach 69.9 million users by 2024.
- Suburban residents make up 36% of US adults who use online grocery delivery services.
How many Americans eat fast food every day?
The exact number of Americans who eat fast food on any given day may vary, but about a third of Americans visit fast food every day.
A much smaller percentage (4%) say they never visit fast food restaurants for a snack or meal.
- About 34% of American children eat fast food on any given day (about 84.8 million).
- Adults between the ages of 20 and 39 consume the most fast food (44.9% of them eat fast food).
- About 37.7% of adults between the ages of 40 and 59 regularly consume fast food.
- Around 42.4% of black Americans consume fast food on a daily basis.
- Asians eat the least fast food at 30.6%.
- Around 83% of American families eat fast food every week.
- About 80% of Americans visit a fast food restaurant at least once a month.
- A fifth of Americans (20%) eat fast food twice a week.
- On any given day, around 50 million Americans eat fast food.
- Only about 4% of Americans say they never eat fast food.
- About 5.65% of Americans consume seven to nine fast food meals a week.
- Convenience is one of the top reasons Americans eat fast food.
How Much Fast Food Do Americans Eat?
Fast food consumption has increased in recent years, but a large part of this has to do with increasing portion sizes.
Convenience is another major reason for the rise of fast food.
- Adults get about 11.3% of their calories from fast food.
- Americans underestimate their calorie consumption from fast food by about 175 calories.
- Soft drinks are one of the biggest culprits for extra calories in fast food.
- On average, Americans get fast food about 2.4 times a week.
- About 91% of parents surveyed in 2016 said they had had their child have lunch or dinner at a fast food restaurant in the previous week.
- Fast-food hamburgers have grown 23% over the past 20 years.
- During the same time, soft drinks grew by 52%.
- Also in the last two decades, Mexican fast food platters have increased by 27%.
- Fast-food snack portions have grown about 60% in 20 years.
- Demand for fast food grew 5.8% from 2020 to 2021, which is the largest single-year growth since the 1980s.
- About 29.42% of Americans reported eating fast food less than once a week in 2018.
- Around 48.3% of men eat fast food for lunch, compared to 39.1% of women.
- Just over a quarter of women (25.7%) eat fast food as a snack, compared to 19.1% of men.
Health risks of fast food
Many people understand that fast food isn’t best for you, but some people are looking for healthier options.
Still, some people don’t understand how risky eating fast food or even living near a restaurant can be.
- The average fast food meal contains 836 calories.
- That’s about 37% of your daily calorie needs.
- Despite this, the number of calories in fast food has decreased by about 12% on average since 2013.
- An average meal contains about 42.6% of the carbohydrates you need, 33.6% of the daily fats and 15.4% of the protein you need.
- On days when kids eat fast food, they eat about 120 extra calories.
- When children eat fast food, they also consume more fat, sodium and sugar.
- Just living near a fast-food restaurant can increase your risk of obesity by 5.2%.
- Your risk of depression increases by 51% if you regularly consume fast food.
- 76 percent of Americans know that fast food is bad for your health.
- Another 20% believe fast food is “kinda good” for health.
- About 2% of people believe fast food is good for you.
- About 30% of fast food restaurants have started offering healthy options for kids.
- About 39% of Americans have started choosing healthier fast food restaurants like Chipotle.
- Poor eating habits are responsible for approximately 11 million deaths annually around the world.
Economic statistics about fast food
Another issue to consider is how all of this fast food consumption is affecting Americans, from yearly spending to lifetime spending.
Many Americans spend heavily on fast food, in part because it’s cheap and easy.
- Americans spend about $1,200 per person on fast food each year, or about $100 a month.
- Collectively, Americans spend $110 billion a year on fast food, and that money could end world hunger for three years.
- About 32% of Americans believe fast food is cheaper than other options.
- Only 31.7% of low-income families (130% of the federal poverty line or below) consume fast food.
- On the other hand, up to 42% of high-income families (above 350% of the federal poverty line) regularly consume fast food.
- About 36.4% of families in the middle (130 to 350% of the federal poverty line) consume fast food.
- In 2019, people spent $130.4 billion on McDonald’s.
- Americans spent another $45.9 billion at Starbucks in 2019.
- There are over 200,000 fast food companies in the US.
- The average American spends about $70,500 on fast food in their lifetime.
- Children see between three and five fast food ads a day.
- Seeing fast food ads increases a child’s chance of consuming that food by 30%.
- Children’s TV channels showed viewers 76% more advertising in one hour.
- By 2027, the global fast food market is expected to reach $931.7 billion.
- The US fast food market reached $296.6 billion in 2021.
- Despite a slump in 2020, the fast food market rebounded and hit an all-time high the following year.
- The price of fast food has increased by an average of 6% since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Subway has more locations than McDonald’s, even though it only makes about $10.4 billion in sales a year.
- A 2009 study found that fast food ads make up about 70% of all ads.
- YouTube videos featuring junk food have received over a billion views.
- YouTube channels featuring children promote food and drink in about 42.8% of their most popular videos.
- In 2017, fast food companies spent over $11 billion on television advertising.
- Black teenagers were twice as likely to watch this fast food ad as white teenagers.
- Four million Americans work in the fast food industry.
